Hats

Designs

Tonatiuh - Aztec Sun

In Aztec belief, the current sun, Tonatiuh, is the fifth in a series of creations. After the end of the Fourth Sun, the gods gathered at Teotihuacan. There, through their own sacrifice, they created and animated the Fifth Sun. Taken from a carving found in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital and modern Mexico City, this design shows the emergence of the Fifth Sun from the mouth of a fire serpent and in the center of the day sign of its birth, 4 Movement. The day signs of the previous suns are also shown - 4 Jaguar, 4 Wind, 4 Rain, and 4 Water.

Xiuhcoatl - Fire Serpent

The fire serpent was wielded as a magical atlatl by Huitzilopochtli, the sun and war god of the Aztec. This design is based on a turquoise and shell mosaic pectoral worn on the chest of Emperor Moctezuma II to signal his association with the Aztec's patron deity.

Cuachique

This shield is decorated with the symbol of the Cuachique, one of the most elite military orders in the Aztec empire. Members of this order had earned enough war honors to be made generals, but had turned down these promotions and asked to remain at the front lines where the Cuachique led all attacks.

Chichen Itza Ball/Skull

This design comes from a mural in the ballcourt at the Maya site of Chichen Itza. The ballgame re-enacted an episode of creation where the Hero Twins defeated the ancient gods of the underworld and avenged their father, whom the underworld gods had previously defeated in the game and sacrificed. During the course of the games, one of the twins is decapitated by the underworld gods after a loss and his head is used as the ball in a subsequent game. In the mural from Chichen Itza, the same treatment is given a defeated ballplayer. Ballcourts were seen as entry points to the underworld, and the skull here emits a speech scroll from its mouth containing the symbol for portal to the underworld and evoking it as a sacred space where one can communicate with the gods and ancestors.

Water Lily Jaguar

The jaguar was an important symbol of power in Mesoamerica representing the night, death, and the underworld in various manifestations. This Maya deity is known as the Water Lily Jaguar for his water lily headdress which denotes his association with the underworld as well as with death and re-birth. The headdress also bears the Ahau or Lord sign used to signify kings and other high royalty, and a symbol representing the Water Lily Jaguar's head was worn on the belts of Maya kings.

Chavin Raptor

Chavin de Huantar was an early ceremonial center in the Peruvian Andes. Located near a mountain pass connecting the Amazon Basin to the east with the Pacific Coast to the west, it was the destination for pilgrims from all over the Andes and adjacent areas seeking access to the spectacular temples built there. These temples were decorated with carvings and statues of supernatural beings that combined the features of powerful animals like eagles, jaguars, and caimans.

Moche Spider

The fearsome decapitator god of the Moche of coastal Peru was sometimes shown in human form, and other times in a combination of human and various animal forms, like spider, octopus, and crab. When in human form he is most often shown with a tumi sacrificial knife in one hand and a human head in the other, hence his name as the decapitator god.

Moundville Palette

Found at the Mississippian site of Moundville in Alabama, this sandstone disk has decorated and undecorated sides. The undecorated side was used as a palette to grind paint pigments most likely used in mortuary rituals. The other side depicts images commonly used in Mississippian ceremonial art - a hand with an eye in its palm that is encircled by horned rattlesnakes. The hand represents a constellation that was seen as a portal to the afterworld that the souls of the dead reached after following the Milky Way through the night sky.

Issaquana Rattlesnakes

Like the Moundville palette, this sandstone disk, also from Alabama, has
decorated and undecorated sides. The undecorated side was used as a
palette to grind paint pigments most likely used in mortuary rituals.
The other side depicts two intertwined rattlesnakes with feathered crests on their heads.

Mayahuel

Mayahuel is the Aztec goddess of pulque, an alcoholic beverage fermented from the milky and sugary sap of the agave plant. This sacred beverage was then drunk during fertility ceremonies. In this depiction, Mayahuel is shown rising up from the spiny leaves of an agave plant, with the stalk and flowers of the plant sprouting from her head.

Toltec Eagle

Based on a decorative frieze from a pyramid at the Toltec capital of Tula, this design shows a Golden Eagle standing on top of a cactus eating a nopal, or cactus fruit, which is also a human heart. This iconic image would be later adapted by the Aztec and form the basis for the centerpiece of the modern Mexican flag.

Rogan Plate - Morning Star

This copper plate was found at Etowah, Georgia, and believed to represent the culture hero Morning Star rising from the underworld in triumph after he has vanquished the cannibal giants who had been plaguing the people. He is half human and half falcon, fast hunters of the above realms associated with lightning. In one hand he holds a mace and in the other the decapitated head of his defeated enemy.

Castilian Gorget - Morning Star

This shell gorget was found in Tennessee and shows a warrior with a mace in one hand and the decapitated head of his defeated enemy in the other. His headdress, facial markings, and other attire suggest it is a representation of the culture hero Morning Star, perhaps after his defeat of the cannibal giants. Gorgets were worn at the throat and were a very visible sign of identity and status, and those who wore such gorgets were likely individuals of great achievement and merit.

Nazca Killer Whale

Often called trophy heads, suggesting conflict and war, the context of many images suggest the heads may represent the soul of a deceased person being guided along the hazardous journey to the afterworld by a powerful supernatural being. The Nazca lived on the Pacific Coast, where killer whales would be some of the most powerful marine animals known, and ideal guardians for the soul as it makes its way across the ocean towards the setting sun and the afterworld.

Teotihuacan Serpent

This coiled rattlesnake from a painted mural at Teotihuacan also has horns and stepped and coiled designs along his back often interpreted as representing clouds and water.

Ehecatl

Ehecatl the wind god was an avatar of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, who was associated with the west and the planet Venus as the evening star.

Tlaloc

Tlaloc was the Aztec rain god also associated with spring and the return of agricultural fertility. Shown as fanged and wearing goggles, this iconography of a rain and storm god was widespread in Mesoamerica, and seems to have first emerged at the site of Teotihuacan north of Mexico Citynearly 1,000 years before the rise of the Aztecs.

Xiuhtecuhtli

Xiuhtecuhtli is the Aztec god of fire and time, the creator of the calendar and the order it instilled over the universe. In this detail from the Codex Fejervary-Mayer, Hiuhtecuhtli is shown at the center of time and space where the trees of the four directions rise. He carries an atlatl in one hand and a bundle of darts in the other.

In this danse macabre scene painted on the sides of a box-like Moche pot a skeletal drummer leads other skeletons bearing long, staff-like maces.